Hydrogen, an energy vector for sustainable mobility ›

The European legislation on polluting emissions of vehicles, Euro Standard NOx and PM, is the forerunner to a new regulation that will limit CO2 emissions which, for heavy vehicles, includes the CO2 reduction objectives of 15% for 2025 and 30% for 2030.

This concern for the environment has led to a new concept of mobility in which everything indicates that different types of alternative energies will coexist, depending on many variables (legislative, types of application, types of market, etc.). We are, therefore, on the threshold of the second turning point in the sustainable mobility sector.

In this context, renewable hydrogen will have a role as one of the main energy elements for achieving climate neutrality in 2050 and the decarbonisation of the economy, given that its production and consumption is climate neutral and does not generate polluting emissions.

The European Hydrogen Strategy positions this gas as an essential element in support of the eurozone’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in three phases (by 2024, 2030 and 2050) for which it defines a succession of milestones. The first phase, between 2020 and 2024, is estimated to see the installation of at least 6GW of electrolysers in the EU and the production of up to 1 million tons of renewable hydrogen. In the second phase, 2025-2030, hydrogen must become an intrinsic part of an integrated energy system with the aim of installing at least 40 GW of electrolysers and the production of up to 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen. In the third phase, to end in 2050, renewable hydrogen technologies will have to reach maturity and be deployed on a large scale to reach the sectors that are most difficult to decarbonise.

At state level, the recently approved Climate Change and Energy Transition Bill encourages the use of renewable gas, including biogas, biomethane, hydrogen and others. MITMA has an allocation of € 1,500 million until 2023 for green hydrogen, in order to distribute it among Autonomous Communities, Metropolitan Councils and private companies.

Thus, Spain has the opportunity to position itself as a technological benchmark in the production and use of renewable hydrogen. It must lead a country project towards a decarbonised economy through the promotion of the hydrogen value chain, through the creation of technological clusters, pilot projects on a regional scale, the promotion of industrial innovation and the availability of renewable energy at competitive prices.

Beyond production, the national objectives target activity areas where the demand for renewable hydrogen has the greatest potential for growth - this is the case of future sustainable mobility.

Public transport in buses and coaches is a key element for achieving the aforementioned objectives. Currently buses transport more than 3,000 million passengers in our country, although they only represent 0.2% of the total number of vehicles.

Buses and coaches are safe, with no fatalities in 2019. Undoubtedly sustainable, they are the means of transport that generates the lowest GHG emissions. They guarantee the mobility of millions of people every day through 160,000 km of road and because they consume hardly any public resources, they contribute more than 1,550 M € per year to the treasury, invoice more than 5,900 M € and employ more than 95,000 people.

The sustainable mobility of the future depends unavoidably on the use of the bus and coach in urban and intercity transport whose capillarity and dense network of connections enable the connection of more than 8,000 towns every day and account for 50% of the trips by public transport in our country, in school or work transport that reduces traffic congestion and contributes to the Transport to Work Plans (PTT) and in the sector of discretionary and tourist transport due to the relevant strategic importance of this activity, given its close link to the tourism, to the Spanish industrial sector.

The creation and promotion of an environment conducive to recognizing the potential of renewable hydrogen is decisive and it becomes a competitive energy source and can be used in industry, public transport, intermodal transport, etc.

It will be decisive to appeal to the efforts of all the agents and institutions involved in this strategy and to undertake incentivisation, penetration, infrastructure implementation projects, as well as support for the bus and coach manufacturing industry and the promotion of sustainable public transport to guarantee a quality, sustainable supply, at competitive prices.

Strategically, the Irizar Group is committed to battery and fuel cell technologies in order to achieve zero emissions. The customer will be able to choose between the battery or fuel cell technology that best meets their needs. The Irizar Group’s short-term technological road map includes the development and manufacture of coaches, especially vehicles that travel long distances between refuelling stops, propelled by hydrogen fuel cells and will gradually extend this technology to the rest of the range of Irizar Group vehicles (buses and trucks for urban applications).

It is already making progress in hydrogen-powered coach development projects; one as part of the Basque corridor and others at European level.